DOHA (Reuters) - Al Jazeera, the Qatari-funded television station whose reporting of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings won it millions of viewers in the Middle East, is defiant following a backlash by Arab governments that accuse it of supporting Islamists. On June 23, three Al Jazeera journalists were sentenced by an Egyptian court for up to 10 years in jail for aiding a "terrorist organization" - a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood that helped sweep Hosni Mubarak...

By Mahmoud Habboush DUBAI, Aug 13 (Reuters) - A television drama about the life of a seventh century Muslim ruler, Omar Ibn al-Khattab, is polarising opinion across the Arab world by challenging a widespread belief that actors should not depict Islam's central figures. Conservative clerics denounce the series, which is running during the region's busiest drama season, the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Scholars see an undesirable trend in television...

SANTO ANDRE Brazil (Reuters) - Three-time World Cup winners Germany face Algeria in a last-16 clash tinged with history on Monday while France and Nigeria square off in another intriguing Europe against Africa contest. The Germany-Algeria match in Porto Alegre is their first meeting since the 1982 World Cup, where Algeria beat West Germany in a group match but then were eliminated when Germany beat Austria 1-0 in a match that both teams appeared to collude to produce a result that...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israel's electoral nudge to the center may limit Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's freedom to set policy toward Iran and the Palestinians, but few in the Middle East expect a marked retreat from the premier's hawkish approach. Tuesday's vote cost Netanyahu's bloc a quarter of its seats but still gave him and traditional allies on the right an edge over challengers to the left; defying expectations of a surge by religious hardliners, it...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel is holding secret talks with some Arab states that do not recognize it, looking to establish diplomatic ties based on a common fear of Iran, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday. Amongst the countries he was in contact with were Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Lieberman told newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth - the first such disclosure by a senior Israeli official. The two nations swiftly denied the existence of any talks with...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel is holding secret talks with some Arab states that do not recognize it, looking to establish diplomatic ties based on a common fear of Iran, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday. Amongst the countries he was in contact with were Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Lieberman told newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth - the first such disclosure by a senior Israeli official. The two nations swiftly denied the existence of any talks with...

LONDON (Reuters) - The Muslim Brotherhood's activities in Britain will be reviewed over concerns about possible links to violence, Prime Minister David Cameron said, widening pressure on a veteran Islamist movement facing an intensifying crackdown in the Arab world. The Brotherhood and affiliated organizations and parties are part of the political landscape in many Arab and Islamic states where they have placed deep roots in society thanks to their involvement in...

By Rita Ciolli, Special to the Tribune. Rita Ciolli is a staff reporter for Newsday, a Tribune newspaper | October 9, 2001

Suddenly, the West has discovered Al Jazeera, the most widely watched television news channel in the Arab world. The 5-year-old news channel based in the small Persian Gulf nation of Qatar was mostly unknown to American audiences until Sunday, when it offered live images of the strikes against Afghanistan. Those pictures, framed by the news channel's logo in red Arabic letters, were quickly followed by the transmission of accused terror mastermind Osama bin Laden denouncing the United States.

KUWAIT (Reuters) - Arab leaders at odds over supporting Islamists in upheavals across the Middle East have proved in no mood to reconcile at a summit this week, an outcome likely to satisfy Syria and Iran in their rivalry with regional heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Heads of state assembled in Kuwait publicly acknowledged they needed to end quarrels that are exacerbating an already catastrophic war in Syria as well as turmoil in Egypt and Iraq. Behind the...

In recent weeks, several columns have appeared in the Tribune intending to analyze the Persian Gulf crisis from an Arab viewpoint. First, Prof. Cherif Bassiouni told us we must try to understand the Arab thought process. He then proceeded to describe how Saddam Hussein had achieved the "moral high ground" vis-a-vis the United States. It seems that the person who warred on his neighbor (Iran) for eight years, who used poison gas not only on his Arab enemies but also on Arab civilians...

In her short stories and novels, Hanan al-Shaykh has explored the lives of Arab women, whether caught in the maelstrom of civil war in her native Lebanon or cloistered in the sex-segregated world of the Gulf states. Her work is peppered with thoroughly modern characters living in--or leaving--deeply traditional worlds. In her latest novel, "Only in London" (Pantheon Books, $23), a divorced Iraqi woman, a Moroccan prostitute, a Lebanese transvestite and an English art expert encounter one...

Israel buried former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at his family farm on Monday, celebrating the military achievements of a man seen as a war hero at home but as a war criminal by many in the Arab world. Eulogized first in a ceremony in Jerusalem , and later in the green fields of his southern estate, a stream of speakers hailed a life entwined with that of his country, while gently alluding to the controversies that also defined his...

When it appeared last year, the first Arab Human Development Report was a stinging diagnosis of what was wrong with the Arab world. More painful still was the fact the study was done by Arab intellectuals and academics, pre-empting the usual rebuttal about Western powers misunderstanding Arab societies. The second report, of a planned series of four, was released Monday and it saves some of its critiques for Western countries. The only path toward economic and intellectual development for...

* Syrian dance troupe takes top prize * Performances include Moroccan juggler, Lebanese drummer * Judges praise Grout's voice, passion for Arabic music BEIRUT, Dec 8 (Reuters) - An American singer with no Arab heritage nearly took the top prize in the "Arabs Got Talent" television show this weekend, breaking into the top three alongside a Palestinian artist and a Syrian dance troupe. Jennifer Grout, a 23-year-old from Massachusetts, fell just ...

Arab societies are choking on their own ironies and contradictions. Many sit atop phenomenal oil reserves yet lag in economic growth. Some were fountainheads of scientific achievement centuries ago, yet can't compete technologically today. Meanwhile rageful Islamic fundamentalists embrace not modernity, which could catalyze Arab progress, but a return to a neo-medieval, repressive isolation that would only perpetuate stagnation. Most ironic of all, and not unlike other areas of the developing...

* Egypt seeking investment from its Gulf Arab friends * Business ties with Qatar hurt by political dispute * Shift highlights wider tussle for influence By Rania El Gamal and Amena Bakr DUBAI/DOHA, Dec 2 (Reuters) - With one notable exception, wealthy Gulf Arab states are encouraging investment in Egypt to help shore up its army-backed government: the absentee is Qatar, rattled by the collapse of Islamist power in the biggest Arab ...